Food retail outlets in Austria

The Austrian food retail trade is a rather stable market. Compared to 2008 there are only slight changes in the number of outlets – in the middle of 2009 there are only a few less than the previous year with 5.966 outlets.

For every outlet in Austria there are 1.400 people. This number varies between the regions. For example in Burgenland nearly 1.300 inhabitants “share” an outlet whereas in Vienna, at the other end of the spectrum there are about 2.200 inhabitants per outlet.

The closure of small shops is balanced by the opening of additional outlets from chained retailers and food discounters. The marginal change in the outlet numbers in Austria can also be seen in other retail branches such as drugstores and fashion retail.

Regarding the total sales area there also was a slight decline of nearly 2%. The top retailers in Austria are still REWE and Spar who among them share 68% of the total sales area.

The regional variations of the outlet density can be seen in the diagram below.

Further details on all market participants not only for the food retail but also for 8 other retail branches can be found in the RegioData Research retail addresslists for Austria Edition 2009.